Parsons, Col. William and Shiach, W. S.  "An Illustrated History of Umatilla
County and of Morrow County." Spokane, WA: W. H. Lever, 1902. p. 451.
 
JAMES DALLAS PRICE

     We unfeignedly state that it gives us great pleasure to place in these
permanent chronicles of Umatilla county an outline of the career of the man
whose name heads this article, and, were it possible, more space would be
devoted to the interesting details. Come from an ancestry that fought in days
gone by to establish the Union and later to maintain it, he has shown the same
metal in his many arduous campaigns against, and fierce battles with, the
savages whose bloodthirsty natures led them to be the cruel enemy of the
overburdened pioneers; while no less has he manifested the same energy and
courage in the dangerous and trying civil pursuits in the various frontiers of
the Pacific northwest and the north Rocky mountain regions. He was born in
Danville, Vermilion county, Illinois, on March 31, 1830, and there remained
until he had reached man's estate, acquiring meanwhile the education to be had
from the public schools. His father, James Price, a native of Virginia, born in
1797, came early to Kentucky, and from there in 1828 to Illinois. It was his
distinction to have fought in the war of 1812, while the grandfather of our
subject served under George Washington through the whole of the war of the
Revolution. In 1851, Mrs. Price, her husband having died the previous rear,
accompanied by her three daughters and three sons, of whom our subject was one,
turned from their old home to the setting sun and accomplished the weary journey
across the plains by ox teams to the Willamette, where they landed at Foster's
on September 24 of the same year, having had a good trip without molestation
from the Indians. They wintered in Salem, while our subject went to Portland,
then a small town of three thousand souls, and engaged in tending ferry across
the Willamette. Here he became personally acquainted with Joe Meek and old Dr.
Newell, crossing them many times on his ferry.  After six months at this work he
engaged with William Ives and George Hyde to assist in running a meridian line
from Portland to California and base line to Olympia, for which they had secured
the contract from the government. This occupied five years, during which time
the Rogue river country was laid into townships. In 1855 Mr. Price went on a
prospecting trip to Colville country, but returned without successful find. Then
he enlisted in Company H, First Oregon Mounted Volunteers, commanded by Captain
David Layton, to come into the Umatilla country to put down the Indian uprising.
Here he helped to build the old fort at Echo, named Fort Henrietta, after
General Nesmuth's wife. From here they went to three miles above the Hudson Bay
fortifications at old Wallula, where they had a four-days' fight with the
Indians, losing twenty-six men in killed and wounded, but defeating the savages
with great slaughter. During the fight they took the Indian chief, Pupumoxmox,
the commander of all the savages, captive, but being hotly pressed by his
braves, they were obliged to kill the old son of the forest. From this
battlefield they marched to near Whitman Station, camping for a time, and from
there to Miss creek above Walla Walla. At this latter place they lived for
thirty days on beef alone, without the addition of salt, other rations being
entirely cut off. During this winter he was one of a number detailed to take
hone some Indian prisoners who had been spying. After the war, in the winter of
1860-61, he packed his outfit on his back across the mountains to the famous Oro
Fino mines, where he operated for six months, at which time he returned to his
donation claim, near Albany, which he had taken up in 1852 carrying with him the
snug sum of two thousand five hundred dollars. Here he rested, being occupied
with farming, until the spring of 1865, then making another mining venture to
Melhorn Gulch, fifty miles west front Helena, Montana. Remaining here six
months, he sold his claim for one thousand dollars. Inside of a year it was sold
for twenty-five thousand dollars. It is interesting to note what was the common
price of the necessary articles in this camp: Ax handles, $7.50; pick with
handle, $15.00; flour, 30 cents per pound;. lumber, $2.00 per foot. Returning to
Albany, he was elected city marshal and served one term. After this he engaged
in carpentering during the summer months and trapping for beaver, mink and otter
in the winter, having learned the art from Joe Meek. In 1858 he removed to
Pendleton, and after two years purchased his present place of thirty-five acres
in the city limits, where he follows market gardening with good remuneration. In
1867, at Brownsville, Linn county, Oregon, he was married, on May 1, 1867, to
Miss Letitia Haney, a native of Chillicothe, Missouri, and crossed the plains in
1862. They have four children living: Albert P.; Minnie, now Mrs. William P.
Daniels, of Pendleton; James O.; Fred; John, deceased and buried in Olney's
cemetery at Pendleton. The other boys are all at home. Mr. Price is a member of
the F. & A. M., joining in Albany, the first one to be made a Mason in Linn
county. Mr. Price is now enjoying the well-earned retirement from the more
arduous duties of life, while in these riper years he surely has great
satisfaction in looking back upon a career well spent and packed full of
stirring events, all closely connected with the leading features of this Pacific
northwest. He is highly esteemed and respected by all.

*******************

Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2009 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.